1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the field of multimedia processing systems and more specifically to data sharing and linkage for Internet Protocol telephony set-top boxes.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Various methods for communicating personal multimedia information are well known in the art. For instance, when two individuals wish to communicate information relating to their television and Internet viewing interests, this is most often accomplished using e-mail services, hand-written notes, telephone calls, and even the postal service.
The exchange of e-mail addresses is often done over the telephone, which increases the possibility of making an error. Other types of personal information, such as television viewing preferences, family or personal audio-video data such as photo archives and activity schedules, mailing addresses, address books or other contact information, favorite websites, personal writings such as personal reviews of events viewed, MP3 audio files, and travel itineraries, etc., are difficult or impossible to communicate orally. These types of personal information are often sent using the U.S. Postal mail service or a commercial package handler. Communicating personal preferences using these standard approaches can be costly, error-prone, and time consuming. This process becomes even more expensive as the distance between the users increases.